Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1891 — HE SMOKED IN A STREET CAR. [ARTICLE]

HE SMOKED IN A STREET CAR.

Bat the Little Conductor and the Driver Got Him Out. The man inside the horse-car was very large and red. The conductor of the car was small and pale. Uhe large red passenger was infringing the rules of the railroad company by lighting a cigar. The small conductor had watched this audacity, and when he was satisfied that the cigar-lighting process w r as not an illusion he remarked, with considerable sternness of voice for a diminutive man : '“You’ll have to put that cigar out.” The large red man took no notice of the observation, but puffed huge volumes of smoke. “You’ll have to put that cigar out, I say.” Still the large man puffed serenely on. “I say, you’ll have to put that cigar out. The large man turned his small pig eyes laterally, and said : “Save yer“ voice, young feller, saveyer voice.” The conductor looked the large man over \ He observed that he was about, the size of Sullivan, the pugilist, and he wondered whether his salary as conductor was large enough to induce him to risk his life in a physical encounter with the burly ruffian. There is a personal pride in nearly all men, and that conductor forgot the corporation he was serving and its rules, and determined that he, as an individual, would not be crushed. “You'll have to put that cigar out,” he repeated. His admonition waspainfully unchangeable in diction and tone, and it was beginning to annoy the large red man. “Say, young feller,” remarked the latter, “ring the bell andletverselfoff.” The conductor walked forward to the driver’s platform and said a few quiet words to his coadjutor. Then he returned.to his own platform, and for a moment or so, as the car went on, he was silent. Finally he directed his attention again to the smoker. “You’ll have to put that cigar out,” he said.

The large red man rose to his feet, and as he did so the conductor pulled the bell for the car to stop. The smoker strode out to the platform, and, glowering down on the little conductor, held the lighted cigar under his nose, saying: “That cigar ain’t goin’ ter be put out. See!” The car was now at a standstill and the driver was looking back at the two men on the rear platform. He saw the little conductor let fly his fist at the large red man, and immediately he let go of his brake and gave each of his horses a sharp cut with the whip. They leaped forward and galloped awav with the now empty car. When the driver looked around again he saw the figure of the large man standing ruefully in the middle of the car track a block behind. A small boy went out into the street to see what the man fell off the car for. The determined smoker was dusting himself. There was no cigar near him. He looked about in a dazed way. and then said: “What was that conductor’s number ?” The small boy did not know, so the comedy will never have a tragic sequel. —New York Sun.